Only In Death Does Duty End (Amalthean Crusade - 3)

My friend JY came over tonight and we fought the attempted rescue of the Inquisitor who had been captured by Tau forces last time. Well, actually, we fought it out twice, as the first time we were stumbling around with Kill Team and didn't really know what we were doing.

The rules for Kill Team were taken from the 4th Edition 40K rulebook, and were bolted onto 6th Edition rules. An Imperial Guard Stormtrooper team had been tasked with assaulting the local police post where the Tau were holding the Inquisitor prior to flying her out for interrogation by the Water Caste and Ethereals. The team's primary objective was to get the Inquisitor out, or, if that was impossible, to kill her to prevent the information she held falling into Tau hands...

Setup: the Tau move into the police post just off the main road from the battle area. Visible are the three local policemen who are collaborating with Tau occupying forces, and the damage wrought by Imperial Navy bombing.

 The ill-fated Stormtrooper Team Spear-Six-Theta, imaged by a remote camera en route to the target area.

 Deployment: All images captured by a loitering Imperial Navy overflight. Tau forces set up a perimeter within the police post, with two alarm tripwires across the main entrance. The locals are ordered to remain outside until the Inquisitor has been removed by Orca transport (prior to the actual invasion of Hamish's World, Imperial air assets had not seized complete command of the skies).

 Deployment: Team Spear 6T move into nearby ruins and prepare to strike...

 Imperial Turn 1: Shooting kills two of the closest guard team, and thanks to adapted weapons, no alarms are raised (the surviving guard had clearly panicked and failed to trigger any)!

 Tau Turn 1: The surviving guard moves into the building and prepares to defend his position.

 Imperial Turn 2: Disaster strikes! After moving up to the wall, the team opens fire with their pistols... and the sergeant's plasma pistol explodes, killing him. Then, in the assault, the Tau guard overpowers and kills one of the team before he is smashed to the floor in turn. The team move back outside to consider their options...

 Tau Turn 2, Imperial Turn 3: The guards, by now extremely suspicious, move to investigate. The Imperials move back into the building and gun down the guard commander and one of his soldiers... but he gets back up in a show of toughness. To make matters worse, the plasma gunner's weapon explodes, and kills him. Team Spear 6T are now down to just four men.

 Tau Turn 3: The guard commander's dying moments see him fail to lock his markerlight on the squad in the room, and shooting accounts for just one member of the Stormtrooper team.

 Imperial Turn 4: Team Spear 6T grab the Inquisitor, and move back outside the building. With a bit of luck and a clean pair of heels, the survivors will succeed in their mission...

Tau Turn 4: ...except one of the Tau guards has an Ion rifle, and the resulting high-energy blast (captured here on thermal imaging) kills not only the remaining Stormtroopers, but the Inquisitor as well. A victory, of sorts, to the Tau, although the loss of their prisoner and the guard commander is a bit embarrassing. Not as shameful as the loss of seven highly-trained, well-equipped and experienced special forces troopers, though.

But, then again, only in death does duty end, and they did (sort of) prevent the Tau from learning what the Inquisitor knew. (Posthumous) medals all round! And a stern word with the Adeptus Mechanicus responsible for maintaining those plasma guns, I think.